Conant Steps To Lectern in Nat. Sci. Class

For the first time since assuming the University Presidency in 1933, James B. Conant '14 yesterday took over the reins of instruction in a complete College course. With one assistant, he began his fall term task of teaching "The Growth of the Experimental Sciences" to 200 upperclassmen.

The course, Natural Sciences 11a, part of the General Education program which President Conant himself helped to bring into being, originated from his long-standing belief that the scientist, his role, and his methods are misunderstood by the layman.

Expresses Own Viewpoint

In a press conference yesterday morning following the first meeting of the course, he attributed his urge to give a course again to this belief: "If you have a particular point of view, you are the only one who can express it."

The general plan of the course is "to demonstrate the way in which scientists have operated in the past and will continue to work in the future," President Conant explained.

Comparing the methods of today's and yesterday's researcher, he said that "it is our contention that the way the seventeenth century scientist would grope for what we now consider the basic law is the same way the scientist works today."

The course will be tailored for students without an extensive preparation in the natural sciences. Enrollees, he said, are expected to have had "only a slight exposure to science in high school."

Relationships Emphasized

"Considerable emphasis will be placed on the relation of sciences to other social, intellectual, and historical growth," he stated, adding. "This will not only be a course in understanding the scientist, but also one in how and why he works."

The course, to meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 9 o'clock in the Chemical Lecture Room Mallinckrodt Hall, will be carried on entirely by demonstrations. No laboratory is expected.